OBAMA, TURKEY MUST BEAR WITNESS TO HISTORY OF GENOCIDE
Robert Fullam
UConn Daily Campus
y-must-bear-witness-to-history-of-genocide-1.14320 06
April 27 2010
CT
On April 24 of every year, it has been tradition that the President
of the United States speaks on the Armenian genocide. This Saturday,
President Barack Obama kept up with another tradition by speaking
about the incident while omitting the word "genocide."
This year marks the 95th anniversary of the Armenian genocide,
committed during WorldWar I by the Committee for Union and Progress,
ruling party of the Ottoman Empire. Today, its modern heir, the
Republic of Turkey, prides itself on being a Western nation-state based
on democracy and secularism. This painful process of creating a new
national identity in the ruins of a multi-ethnic and multi-religious
empire includes keeping parts of Turkey’s history in the past.
American presidents have been reluctant to speak on the Armenian
genocide due to Turkey’s sensitivity on the subject. Turkey is a
NATO ally and is one out of only two majority-Muslim nations in NATO,
the other being Albania. Turkey is secular, with a pro-Western tilt,
and has the second-largest standing army in NATO.
It’s the United States’ only ally in the Middle East beside Israel,
and is used as a base for the movement of troops and equipment to
Iraq and Afghanistan. So, when they threaten to cut our access to
their airbases for troops, we cave. They are indispensable, and they
know it – they use it as leverage.
Turkey calls any recognition of the events that took place in 1915
genocide defamation of the Turkish nation and slander. Most would
find it problematic that we invest so much into a country that acts
like a child who does not get the toy he or she wants.
I think Obama should call their bluff and refer to the Armenian
genocide as what the vast majority of scholars worldwide see it as:
a genocide. For a country that prizes itself on modernity, Turkey
seems to cling to its past. In Turkey itself, there is a law,
Article 301 of the Turkish Penal Code, which makes it a crime to
insult "Turkishness." Writers and journalists have been charged for
mentioning the continuing conflicts with Kurdish nationalists and
the Armenian genocide. Turkey seems to think that recognizing the
genocide counts as an insult to "Turkishness."
Obama should speak about the issue and make it clear that this is not
meant to slander the Republic of Turkey, but rather bear witness to
the crimes of the Ottoman Empire. The sins of the parents should not
be passed on to the child, but the child should be able to understand
what their parents did wrong. Turkey fears that any recognition of the
Armenian genocide will result in demands for land and reparations from
genocide survivors and their families. Turkey should be comforted to
know that it is virtually impossible in Armenia to take back lands
in previous treaties, ones that were superseded by many more, and
reparations would be a logistical nightmare.
We do not have to agree on everything and our interpretations of
history may differ. It’s as if Turkey feels like we are the only
country that "legislates history" by mentioning the word genocide, but
every day when we commemorate something or have a memorial somewhere,
we put our own spin and opinion into it. Not every country will have
the same feelings.
The Armenian genocide should be brought into the open. By forcing the
opinions of Armenians and Turks on each other, it stifles the public’s
ability to move toward a healthier understanding of what happened in
1915. Obama is entitled to his opinion that it was genocide, as he
affirmed on the campaign trail but not in the Oval Office. Turkey,
if so confident in its position, should let people decide. The facts
will speak for themselves.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
